Bulgaria’s center-right party tasked with forming a new government

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SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria’s president on Wednesday mandated the main center-right party with forming a government, almost three months after elections produced a deeply fragmented parliament.

The GERB party won 69 seats in the Oct. 27 vote for the 240-member legislature, the most of any party but well short of a majority to govern alone.

Prime Minister-designate Rosen Zhelyazkov, a former parliament speaker, presented a list of proposed Cabinet ministers for a minority coalition government and asked President Rumen Radev to send it to parliament for approval.

The party picked Zhelyazkov to head a new government over its leader, Boyko Borissov, who led three governments between 2009 and 2021, when his third Cabinet resigned following major anti-corruption protests.

Zhelyazkov, a 56-year-old lawyer, said his Cabinet will work on absorbing European Union resources, for better governance and functioning of state institutions. Bulgaria, an EU member that has applied to join the eurozone, needs a stable government to tame inflation and guarantee the flow of EU funds.

Zhelyazkov said his party had made “the necessary compromises” while acknowledging the ideological differences with the two junior partners in the uneasy coalition — the pro-Russia Socialist Party and the populist group There Is Such a People.

The proposed coalition commands 107 of the 240 seats in parliament, but the ethnic Turkish party Democracy, Rights and Freedoms with 19 lawmakers promised to back the government in the vote expected on Thursday.